


A Game is a Game

by go_higher



Series: unDone [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: "Brotherly Bonding", Dramedy, Friendship, Gen, Humor, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Platonic Relationships, Revenge, Sincerely crackish, Technically It's Another Re-Write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/go_higher/pseuds/go_higher
Summary: Felix would like to delete himself please
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin & Lee Felix, Hwang Hyunjin & Lee Felix & Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin & Lee Minho | Lee Know, Lee Felix & Lee Minho | Lee Know, Lee Felix & Seo Changbin
Series: unDone [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2132484
Comments: 12
Kudos: 11





	A Game is a Game

**Author's Note:**

> This is a hundred percent for fun as a near-complete remake of the older version from 2019: 'Two Fools Play a Game'

If anyone had asked, Hyunjin was the culprit.

If anyone had asked again after digging a bit further, Minho was the culprit

If _anyone_ had gone back two weeks ago and asked _how_ , then that cursed night spent on _Idol Radio_ was the irrefutable answer.

But no one bothered to ask Felix anything, not even Minho- the current bane of his existence- who had dropped a pin on a map in a text at three a.m. with short texted orders to _'come discreet'_.

Whatever that meant.

Felix hadn't, by the way, gone to _the middle of the woods_ in the black hours of the morning.

He had slept in, ate breakfast with Chan, assured their managers Minho was, in fact, not dead or otherwise incapacitated, and departed from their dorm at around nine.

The sun was out, the skies were clear, and green thrush was vibrant with life. He'd actually only started hurrying towards the woods when it dawned on him that one- Minho actually really hadn't come back to the apartment- and two- Minho actually really might be incapacitated after all. 

It had been bold of Felix to assume his teammate had only just been wandering the streets.

Too bold.

Now he sat, by himself, on a boulder in the middle of a hiking trail.

One accessible by a single rickety bus with a wooden board at the trail's beginning, void of any map, and the surrounding trees- void of any sound.

Truthfully, he had stood there at the entrance of the uphill, pebble and dirt ridden path for two and a half seconds before turning around to return home. But the bus had already taken off and the next wasn't scheduled for three hours.

Finding Minho was a much better alternative to being alone.

Felix checked his phone for the hundredth time. Still no bars.

He lowered his head and hand defeated, shorts not nearly warm enough for the brisk wind and hoodie too thick for the mild weather.

"I want to die," he stated.

A hand fell upon his shoulder.

"My protege."

Felix screamed.

Minho watched as he fell, unbothered despite the huge bags beneath his eyes and bits of twigs and broken leaves caught in his hair and on his clothes.

"Don't _do_ that," Felix chastised as he stood. He brushed himself off.

Minho gazed at him, a human owl. Felix gave the older boy a once-over.

"What _happened?_ Why do you look like... _that?"_

Minho sniffed. "That's what happens when you spend the night in the woods."

And Felix was confused. "No one told you to?"

"No one had to." Minho climbed onto the boulder, taking Felix's previous spot. He rest his arms behind his back as he stretched his legs then casually bent them again. "I had to scope the location. See if it worked. See if it was safe enough."

"Safe enough for what?"

"This and that."

"Please elaborate."

Minho didn't. Instead, for the first time, Felix noticed the backpack Minho carried on his shoulders as the other boy pulled it into his lap and tugged at its zipper. "The weather is much better than last night," he commented. "There weren't even bears. Just this snake. I heard rumors they seek out warm bodies and curl next to people when they sleep. I didn't think it was true."

Felix pretended not to hear that.

A granola bar was retrieved.

Minho offered it his way.

Felix declined. Got to the matter at hand. "Hyung, why did you ask me to come here?"

Minho took his time removing the wrapper of the bar off, and took even longer to answer, seeming to struggle with this simple task. His eyebrows furrowed in fixed concentration.

Felix's gaze turned towards the sky. Someone please.

" _Hyung._ "

"Yes?"

"If you could answer."

"I didn't?"

"You didn't."

"I thought I did."

"...You didn't."

Minho successfully, cheerfully ripped the granola wrapping away, and after a celebratory yell, began to eat with vigor. He looked at Felix, brightening. "I asked you to come for an experiment. If you'd be willing to make the trip, ignoring that I messaged you hours ago, then Hyunjin would too. With some convincing you could do it. He wouldn't even be suspicious."

Felix raised his eyebrow. Just the one. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"You're a good kid," Minho praised, steamrolling over the question. "People like you and you're smart."

"Thanks?"

"You picked your leader so it'll be good if you commit. Come back to this same location tonight with Hyunjinnie. There's no schedule until Monday which makes the weekend free. I'm sure he'll be able to make it back on time. He's resourceful."

"Umm."

Felix stared. It was one of the longest looks he had given his hyung in the entire existence of being 'Stray Kids'.

"What?"

Minho crumpled up his trash and stuffed it in his hoodie pocket. "You sure are asking a lot of questions, Yongbokkie. I explained." He hopped off the boulder and approached, slinging an arm around Felix's shoulder- a little bit to appear buddy-buddy- but mostly really to save himself from falling after he tripped on his untied shoelace.

Felix didn't even bother to comment on it.

"You need to take a shower," he sighed instead.

"I will. Once you agree."

"To what? Luring Hyunjin to the woods?"

"You get it now."

" _No."_ Felix ducked from under Minho's arm and faced him square-on. "Seriously. What's this about?"

Minho stood, ramrod straight.

He smiled blithely.

It was the smile were his eyes became full crests and his the corners of his mouth stretched but didn't quite sit right. It was the smile of a man that promised a great many things. One he reserved for Changbin and Seungmin the most.

"I'm making it even."

Felix understood immediately after that.

He understood a great many things.

And so he appealed to Minho, hands reaching out, placating, desperate, _important_.

"You absolutely cannot."

"Why?"

Any other person would've heard the question come in a tone playful, childish, full of glee. Felix heard the gates of slumbering demon squeaking open.

"You can't _ditch_ one of our members in the woods. That's too much. Even for revenge."

Minho narrowed his eyes. His kind features twisted into a scowl, more petulant than upset. "So giving him a free vacation in the woods is going too far but this is okay?"

And Minho reached up to pull off the wig that had been pretending to be his hair.

Felix swallowed.

The bright orange and blue color swirled over the whole of Minho's hair like a bullseye hadn't faded in the slightest.

"It's not that bad," he lied.

"He will suffer," Minho replied. 

He set his dirt-ridden wig back onto his head. 

It was horribly crooked.

Felix didn't have the heart to tell him.

He did have enough of a heart, however, to try and appeal once more.

He stepped towards his hyung. He set a comforting, encouraging hand on his hyung's shoulder. "Look. I know- I _know_ \- nothing can ever be enough to make up for what he did. But I believe in you hyung. I know you're better. I _know_ -" he emphasized it again, "-you'll put things to rest. Please. You've done so much to him already. He's been beaten. You've won. I promise you he's given up. You _won_."

"Losing was never an option."

Felix nodded. "Yeah." He swallowed again. He held his hyung's gaze. "Yeah. We know. He knows."

Minho was quiet for a good while. He gazed at Felix, speculative and considering. He set his hand over top of Felix's own. Finally, he said, "You really are good." His smile this time was small but pure. "Alright. Tell Hyunjin nothing then. This never happened."

Felix searched his teammate's eyes for any signs of insincerity. He found a lot- actually- but so long as Minho promised-

"Give me your word. You won't bring him out here and do...whatever it was you were going to do."

Minho removed Felix's hand from his shoulder. He went to the boulder, grabbed his backpack and pulled both straps on his shoulder. "I accept."

"You...what does that mean? That wasn't-"

"Come."

Minho walked by Felix, pep in his step that should've been a sign of greater things to come. It really only heralded what ominous consequences had befall them all. "The next bus should be here in an hour! Let's enjoy the sun!" he called behind him. 

"Uh- hyung?" Felix started to call back.

He stood and stared at the older boy's retreating figure on the hill.

"Hyung that wasn't really a promise! Or- or anything!"

Minho whistled. But seeing as he couldn't, it echoed towards Felix, broken, full of air and disturbingly off-key.

"Hyung!"

* * *

Felix sat in the plastic, padded chair of Chan's studio, elbows propped on the desk, hands held in front his mouth in a mimicry of prayer.

He wasn't praying.

He was staring at one of Chan's huge monitors whose screen was about as black and empty as his thoughts.

The door opened behind him.

Closed.

"Lock it," he said aloud.

After a very long moment of silence, the familiar click resounded in the air.

"What are we doing?" Changbin stood beside him. His bewilderment was clear. 

Felix closed his eyes.

Felix breathed in.

Felix lowered his hands and turned in Chan's chair to regard his dear friend.

"I'm having a crisis."

The bewilderment shifted to a fraction of concern.

Changbin sat on the arm of the small couch against the wall. He had dressed in all black, from his shoes to his cap. Something about the uniformity brought Felix the great sense of stability he felt they'd all been missing.

"Talk to me," the rapper said.

"It's about Minho-hyung."

"Don't talk to me," the rapper said.

Felix spluttered.

Changbin stood. He didn't make any further eye-contact as he made a beeline for the door.

Felix all but leapt after the other boy, seizing his arm. Changbin kept his face pressed to the door.

Literally, pressed against the door.

"You abandon me, you're dead to me," Felix said.

"Then I'm dead," was the response.

Felix dropped his grip but not his resolve, moving his hand to the knob to keep Changbin from opening the door and escaping into the hall. "I can't _do this_ alone."

"Then you should've never gotten involved."

"I'm not involved."

"Why'd you say his name?"

"You mean the name of our _team member_?"

Changbin exhaled loudly. He turned around to meet Felix's determined gaze.

"...What about him?"

Felix took his hand off the knob, straightening. "I need your help-"

" _Nope!"_

They both lunged for the door again.

* * *

It started on Idol Radio with 'Guess the Song' in what they all later agreed should have been called 'Guess the Repercussions.

As Seungmin, Minho and Hyunjin had taken to the floor. As Minho had grabbed the toy tambourine. As Hyunjin had walked confidently towards the mic, nodding his head at his fellow dancer in challenge.

They should've _known_.

There was no joy on Seungmin's face. There was no joy at all.

There was a nice mix of resignation, judgement and dread- an expression only he could manage to create.

A song was played. Minho cheated off the bat. He shook his tambourine in Hyunjin's ear and seized the mic. He celebrated. Hyunjin pointed, disbelieving, and ripped the toy away.

It all devolved from there.

Any pretense of order vanished as they rushed to answer the following first. Seungmin was a rag doll. The dancers were a pair of thrown elbows and glares and squabbling yells.

 _"Don't fight!"_ Chan had called with a smile and cheer, because could they please simmer down on a live broadcast, on camera, in front of their fans.

Notions of maintaining niceties were abandoned once Hyunjin pushed Minho from the mic, to the corner, and clapped, happy to be rid of the older boy's infuriating dancing taunts and boastful ceremonies.

Oh God.

And Felix had seen it.

He had seen the expression on Minho's face. The minuscule hurt, the offended eyes, the heated flush creeping up his skin. But it was gone in the next moment, replaced with something incredibly smug as he made fun of Hyunjin's incredibly low score in the game.

Which was zero.

Seungmin won anyway. It made the whole debacle pointless.

There was, however, no wiping the disappointment from either Minho or Hyunjin's faces.

In the van ride home that night, in the van Minho and Hyunjin shared, Felix sat in the furthest back seat and wished he could disappear.

"Seriously, hyung, you were too much. Don't you think you were too much?" Hyunjin was saying, loud.

"Too much just because I won? Because you don't like losing?" Minho was saying back, louder. "Quit talking."

"You were pushing."

"You pushed first."

"You kept hogging the mic!"

"You were too slow! Don't get mad because you were too slow!"

"Stop saying I was _slow_ \- _you were in the way_ -"

" _Like anyone could be in the way of a beanpole so tall-_ "

"Why don't we all take a breather," Felix finally spoke up. "I thought it was fun. We-"

They twisted in their seats to look at him, everything about them so vastly different yet greatly, disturbingly, the same.

Felix dropped his eyes to phone, pretending to pick up a call. "Oh yes? Chan-hyung. I'm glad you called."

In the passenger seat up front, Chan turned around.

"Did you need something?"

"Are you deaf?" Felix replied in English. "You're gonna let them fight?" He gestured to Hyunjin and Minho with his eyes, the two other parts of danceracha resolving to glower out their windows for the rest of the ride.

Chan glanced at them. Then glanced at Felix. Then faced round front. "They'll get over it. It was just a game," he replied, using English as well.

"I know you're talking about us," Minho chimed in annoyingly.

"Yeah," Hyunjin joined, and it was in his own version of English. He eyed Felix in the rear view mirror. "We hear you."

"Oh good." Chan had returned to Korean. "Then you know I'm telling you guys to shut up."

They did shut up.

They shut up for the whole night.

They spared no words over a late dinner and shower, sharing a page out of the book of 'Passive-Aggression Methodology' one of them must've possessed.

It was an accident Minho had stabbed his chopsticks on Hyunjin's hand.

It was an accident Hyunjin had microwaved Minho's soup too scolding hot.

It was a miracle of an accident when they dropped one another's toothbrushes into the toilet bowl. 

Seungmin hadn't slept.

He had watched from the top bunk, sitting with an a-thousand-yard-stare, as Hyunjin crept across the floor and tied Minho's ankle to the bedpost of his own bunk. He was still sitting there in the morning with the same stare as Minho woke, dazed and bleary, and hit the ground, chin first, buried in the folds of his curtain sheet that had been ripped down in the fall.

Seungmin climbed the ladder to exit from the room only once Minho had dashed over to his bunk and threw his head in Hyunjin's crotch.

Hyunjin hollered. Minho hollered. They hollered, wrestling on the floorboards.

Changbin banged on the wall from next door. "I'll kill you!"

* * *

They went on another radio show.

It was a pleasant affair.

They returned to the dorms for lunch.

That was not a pleasant affair.

At the table, all members gathered round, their managers standing, eating near, Hyunjin had asked for the bottle of mayonnaise. Minho had shot it up his nose.

When Hyunjin spit his water out in shock it went straight onto Changbin's face who had been sitting, regrettably, directly across. Jeongin and Jisung sat on Changbin's left and right. Simultaneously, they grabbed their glasses with wide eyes and drank.

Minho sneered and shook his head. He left his spot from beside Hyunjin and accused, "Look what you did."

Hyunjin took his plate of noodles and frisbeed it towards Minho's head.

It missed and hit his back.

Minho went down flying like he'd been struck with the blast of a bazooka and not a harmless piece of styrofoam and wet noodles.

* * *

To no one's surprise, that afternoon while resting on the couch, Hyunjin wound up with a dirty sock in his mouth.

To no one's continual surprise, that evening while resting on the couch after kicking Hyunjin off, Minho wound up with a cup of spilled juice on his face.

"Oh! Sorry, hyung," Hyunjin had gasped, standing overhead. "I tripped."

He had walked directly over.

That was about the time Felix made his big mistake. 

He had seen what occurred. He had grabbed a hand-towel from the kitchen and had hurried to help dry Minho's face off. He had shown _kindness_ to one and not the other.

Minho had taken it to heart.

"Yongbok," he said, serious and solemn. "I won't forget whose side you've chosen."

Felix, kneeling before him, paused. "Uh no-"

Hyunjin spoke too. "Neither will I."

He looked at Felix briefly, then left the room.

Felix glanced at Minho just as briefly- and chased his same-aged friend out into the hall. Hyunjin was on his way to the bathroom.

Felix called out.

"Wait!"

Surprisingly, Hyunjin did. There was great suspicion in the lines of his expression as he turned. "What, traitor?"

Felix attempted not to sound so disbelieving. "We're not _enemies."_

Hyunjin folded his arms. "Fine. What?"

Felix frowned. "You guys have been at it for, like, two days. Can't you try and end it?"

"I didn't start it."

That was debatable.

Felix kept it to himself.

He mimicked Hyunjin's stance, crossing his arms at his chest. "So you didn't start it," he falsely agreed. "But I think we're all pretty done with what it is. Your roommates. The _team._ " Just in case Hyunjin had forgotten they lived with a handful of others.

Hyunjin didn't say anything. 

Felix sighed.

" _Please_."

Hyunjin lowered his arms. He spun on his heels and went for the bathroom again. "Fine. So I'll end it. Your words."

The bathroom door closed.

The shower turned on.

Felix released the breath he'd been holding and leaned against the wall.

Adjacent to where he stood, his bedroom door cracked open and Changbin, barely visible, peered through. "Is it over?"

Felix looked at him, murderous.

"Yeah, thanks for nothing."

Changbin offered a thumbs up and re-shut the door.

* * *

Dinner had been peaceful.

Hyunjin had given Minho napkins nicely when the older boy missed his mouth his spoon.

Minho had warily, very warily, accepted the token of apparent truce.

Felix had smiled from the sink, washing dishes, proud of his mediator's role.

* * *

He had been a fool.

* * *

There was screaming in his dreams.

Felix stood in a field of flowers and grass and attempted to ignore the sound.

The fairies in front him offered more tea. He politely refused and rolled a ball of dough on a wooden table that shouldn't have been there all. The screaming never stopped.

Odd thuds and banging echoed in the air.

Smile a tad strained, Felix left the fairies and grabbed the dough, fully intending on throwing it at whatever was causing the ruckus behind him.

When he turned he woke.

Lying on his side, he was greeted with the wide-eyed stare of his roommate. Changbin, in the clothes he had slept in, was not moving. He sat stiff, hands at his side, holding the mattress securely. Almost like he was afraid he'd be ripped away.

Felix frowned, disoriented and sleepy and somewhat bothered by the disruption to his sleep and the sight. "What?" he mumbled.

"What did you do?" Changbin said.

Felix frowned deeper. Voice deeper. "What?"

Changbin looked towards their door. Felix studied the older boy for a moment, then he slowly pulled himself up and twisted his torso to follow his friend's gaze.

Minho, in a towel, dripping wet, leaning in the doorway with a smile. "Good Morning," he greeted in English.

Felix was suitably terrified.

Minho's arms and hands were pink.

His sopping wet head of hair was a horrendous swirl of color.

In between two of his fingers, was a sticky-note.

Minho raised it as he read, features saccharine.

" _I ended it. Just like Yongbokkie said~ Take the loss and go. Signed with lots of love, Hyunjinnie. Kkami sends her kisses."_

Felix was frozen. "Oh no."

Minho lowered the note. He nodded at Felix encouragingly kind. "Yes?"

Felix stayed frozen. "...Hyung," he managed to get out what had to have been a full three minutes later. "That wasn't- I didn't- _that wasn't me_."

Minho hummed. He glanced at the sticky note. "I remember seeing your name on here," he mused. "Maybe I was mistaken."

He pushed away from the door-frame. His eyes were narrow.

"I'm going out.

Finally, Changbin spoke. "You're going out... like that?" He eyed Minho's towel.

Minho scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous," he said while looking impossibly ridiculous. "I'll get dressed. I'll cover up. You can come with me."

Changbin pointed to himself, double-checking. "Me?" He glanced at Felix. "No, I'm okay."

"I wasn't asking, Bin-ah. We're going on a trip. That's what good friends do."

"Let me be your enemy today then." 

"Is that really what you want?"

Changbin whipped his head Felix's way, wide-eyed, shaken to his core. "Look at what you've done."

Felix swung his gaze towards Minho. Desperate. "Wait. Don't do this. Take me."

Minho had the audacity to look confused. And highly amused. "We're going shopping. I won't do anything to him," he replied.

Felix wasn't sure whether to believe that.

Changbin appeared to have resigned to his fate. He got up and trudged to the clothes on his laundry rack to find a hoodie and sweats. Felix tried not to feel so guilty.

The pair left the dorms sometime soon after.

When they had gone for half an hour and Felix had worried himself through all the possible sufferings Changbin could be experiencing, Felix forced himself from his bed and went to the living room.

It was a full-house. Everyone- even those who regularly slept in- had gathered. 

They were playing a soccer videogame.

Hyunjin was fully focused. Beside him, Chan was too. The managers placed bets. Seungmin sat on the arm of the couch dipping a teabag up and down in his steaming cup.

Felix stared them down.

"Are we... just not pretending that this happened?"

"That what happened?" said Chan.

"Okay so we are," Felix confirmed, staring some more. 

"It's for the greater good!" Jisung called from the depths of the kitchen.

Felix walked around the corner to find the other boy and Jeongin cracking eggs in a pan.

Felix kept staring.

It felt like all he'd been doing lately.

His eyes hurt.

" _Why?"_

Jisung looked up and over at him as if Felix was the one critically missing out. "Because we don't want to be the next victims? Why did you get involved? That's the number one rule of any pranking. Hyung was so pissed."

Felix choked on his spit. Sputtered, flustered. "I did _not_ get involved! I told Hyunjin to _stop_ and he went and threw a bucket of paint on that hyung's head instead!"

"It's like permanent dye," Jisung snorted. He returned to his eggs. Pushed them around. "If he scrubs his hands hard enough it'll come out I guess, but that hair stuff will stay."

"He's gonna have to grow or shave it out," Jeongin commented.

He went to the fridge to get milk.

"He can re-dye it normal," Felix said, feeling almost distressed. "That's the easiest, most simple thing to do."

"Sure, if he wants to go bald," Jisung scoffed. "His head barely survived this round of chemical dumping on his head."

"But..." Felix had never felt so lost. "We have promotions." He gestured with his hands. "Why is no one as concerned as me?"

Jisung didn't say a word. Jeongin opened the carton of milk and poured himself the tallest glass.

He drank from it thirstily, then set it on the counter with a satisfied sigh.

"I guess he'll have to wear a wig."

* * *

Minho had returned with Changbin in tow - who was thankfully no worse for wear. 

They entered the dorms, silent.

Good god was Minho's hair an eyesore.

They all politely tried to peel their eyes away.

The plastic bag Minho carried in his hands from the store went largely unnoticed by all of them but Seungmin and the managers.

They chose wisely not to comment. 

All attention, however, remained on the dancer as he approached. As Minho came around the couch and stood in front Hyunjin, contemplative.

Hyunjin posed, ready to flee. 

Minho lifted a hand.

He offered it to Hyunjin to shake.

"Well-played," he complimented.

He said nothing else.

Hyunjin eyed the hand, cautious.

He accepted, cautious.

He kept shaking Minho's hand, cautious.

Chan delicately reached over and separated their hands when two minutes passed. " _Allll-_ right. I think we've got the point."

"That's very mature of you," Seungmin said, completely unconvinced by the change of events.

The dancer looked at him, nodding. "I'm a pretty mature kid," he replied.

The others looked relieved. Doubtful. But relieved.

Felix did not.

Largely in part because he was looking at Changbin- who was looking at Hyunjin with certain dread.

Felix cleared his throat.

His voice cracked.

He earned a couple of glances.

Felix smiled at them. He smiled at Minho. "Hyung."

Minho matched his smile without hesitation.

Felix nodded his head towards the hall. "Can I talk to you?"

"Of course you can," he answered.

In the shadows of the hall, Minho was still smiling.

Felix valiantly did his best not to show his terror.

He reached for his hyung's splotchy, neon wrists. Tightly, he held them.

"You have to understand. I _never_ wanted this to happen. Hyung, I am _so_ sorry."

Minho expression was unreadable.

Absurdly, unreadable. 

"Don't worry, Yongbokkie," he told him. "I'm going to be the bigger, better man. A good hyung that keeps things fair."

Felix was the absolute furthest thing from comforted. "What does that mean?"

"An eye for an eye. I won't lay a hand on Hyunjin's hair." Minho twisted free from Felix's hold and pat him on the head. "I promise."

He went to his bedroom.

"That doesn't assure me!" Felix called after him.

He stood in the hall alone long after Minho holed up in his room.

* * *

Later that day, on a trip to the grocery store, Felix cornered Changbin in the stairwell that lead to the ground floor.

Hand on the older boy's chest, Felix walked him calmly to stand against the nearest wall. "What did he do?" he demanded to know.

"Huh?"

Felix's tone was far from merry. "Hyung. What did that other hyung do?"

Changbin avoided his gaze.

 _Really_ avoided his gaze.

"Listen to me when I say we should lie low," he spoke at last.

Felix backed away. "Why?"

"Lie low."

" _Why?"_

Changbin broke free, zooming towards the remaining flight of stairs, jogging fast down them. "It's your funeral if you don't!"

Felix chased him. "Answer the question!" 

* * *

Hyunjin was suitably, logically, concerned.

His hand had yet to stop it's burning from when Minho had shaken it earlier on. A sign of a bad omen no doubt. Yet his dancer hyung had been nothing but the dictionary definition of normal. Disturbing. Not quite right.

Hyunjin sat at his desk in their shared bedroom, sketching in his drawing pad, eyebrows knit, mouth twisted, deeply discontent.

Minho did not give up.

He was tenacious, like a gnat.

He didn't do... _this_.

But maybe...maybe he _was_ being the 'bigger man'.

Although the wording pissed him off, his hyung's submission, and consequential defeat, seemed respectable.

Barely.

Minho was barely respectable.

 _Actually he respected Minho a lot,_ but Hyunjin was keeping that sincere sentiment to himself for now.

He'd gotten scolded not too long ago on the phone by a pair of noonas in styling who had been given a heads-up call by one of their managers. They would need to know the extent of what they were dealing with tomorrow. After all, they were supposed to perform on stage in front a crowd. Minho was _supposed_ to take charge in the first center break for their title _'Miroh'_. 

Hyunjin couldn't help it.

He snickered to himself.

 _"Yes, yes, take the lead. Show off that hair..._ " he cackled softly.

Admittedly the smaller dancer would be wearing a wig, but whatever- they would all still know what's underneath. Minho would still have to perform with the knowledge he looked like a neon target deep inside.

"You know if you're trying to be discreet it's not working," Seungmin stated from where he placed new sheets and pillowcases on Minho's bed.

Hyunjin had apparently washed their hyung's laundry and blankets two hours ago, a short while after Minho had come with a handshake for 'peace'. The laundry efforts were a returning gesture of goodwill- or so Hyunjin had described it. 

Seungmin didn't trust it. 

"There's nothing to be discreet about," Hyunjin said. He continued to sketch, marks detailed and small. "I got a one-up he'll never forget. Now he knows I can't be messed with."

"So you say," Seungmin muttered. He fluffed Minho's pillows before stepping away. He frowned. Idly scratched his palms. "I still think you could've ended this differently."

"Mm, okay," Hyunjin replied dismissively. _"Just remember you're an accomplice,"_ he added under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Seungmin came over to look at what his roommate had been sketching. He was quiet for a good moment. Then he spoke.

"Wow."

Hyunjin proudly leaned aside so his teammate could get a better look. "Incredible, isn't it?"

Seungmin looked at him. "No you're obsessed. Why are you drawing _hyung_? Why did you draw him like that?"

"Bald?" Hyunjin smirked. "Call it a premonition."

"You mean a prophecy?"

"Aren't they the same thing?"

"They're not."

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. "Then it's a premo-prophecy. Who cares, the result is the same. He'll have no choice once he realizes how long that stuff actually takes to come out. Months, Seungmin. _Months._ I scare even myself."

Seungmin shook his head. "You have no idea what you're getting into."

* * *

In the room next door, Jisung was thinking of a new tune, half-focused, half-distracted, fully talking to the boy sitting calmly beside him as they leaned against the wall.

"Hyung, you know I love you. But what you're doing is not even wrong. It's evil." 

Minho hummed. He wasn't in any sort of foul mood. He was satisfied. Content.

Jisung glanced down at him. "You ever think about if these things will come back and bite you in the ass?"

"It won't." 

"Are you an idiot?"

"That's a question for Hyunjin, not me." Minho reached over and slapped Jisung harmlessly on the chest. "And don't call me that. Respect your elders."

"Felix gets to call you that!" Jisung protested. "Hyunjin too!"

"Then after I take care of Hyunjin, you want me take care of you?"

"I will politely decline."

Minho snorted. Jisung snorted back. They whacked one another with the strings of their hoodies before they got bored and stared at the wall and second bed across from them.

Jeongin returned their stares.

Blankly.

Holding his phone sideways- airpods in.

"Did you hear my plan?" Minho asked lightly.

Jeongin steadily met his gaze. "I'm not getting involved."

 _"_ You are the brightest of us all."

Jisung scoffed. "And me?"

"You're the biggest genius in the world," Minho said, sincere. He offered a grin and rolled off the bed.

He left the room.

Jisung sighed. It was filled with suffering, but the exasperated kind.

Well. 

He couldn't say he had tried to help Hyunjin out.

Because he really hadn't. 

Mercy on his soul.

* * *

Changbin was having a remarkably hard time falling asleep.

Felix knew this because he was also wide awake, staring at the same ceiling, flat on his back.

"What have you allowed to happened?" he asked, not whispering at all.

His tone was the one of a man born dead inside.

"I allowed what you allowed to happen."

"Is that really your answer?"

Changbin didn't speak.

* * *

The next morning a serene quiet flooded throughout the dorm.

As if he were floating- due to sleep-deprivation not any sort of pleasant dreams- Felix stepped from his bedroom and wandered into the hall.

White sunlight, like a broken halo, on the floorboards and the walls. 

Something was terribly, terribly wrong. 

Felix, body on auto, walked himself to the room Minho, Hyunjin and Seungmin shared.

He pushed open the door.

He stepped inside. 

Minho's bunk curtain was pulled back. The bed was neat and hadn't been slept in. Hyunjin's bed was empty too. 

Felix stepped further inside, brow knitting in confusion. Hyunjin's sheets were halfway on the floor, tangled and twisted, as if they had been wrought from the body that had slept in them. 

For a long, long time, Felix looked at them.

He raised his head.

From the bunk about, Seungmin met his gaze, perched like an ill-foreboding god.


End file.
